Implementing Standards B OB C ORNACCHIOLI DERO T ECHNICAL S ERVICES CEO WWW. DEROTECHNICAL. COM GMAIL. COM

Agenda/Participants will be engaged in: Understanding Common Language Constraints and “Givens” in PowerSchool Best Practices- Standards are Coming! Importing Standards using Excel Conversion Scales Looking at PowerTeacher Gradebook Report Card options for more resources

CEO - DERO Technical Services Evangelist/Process Lead- Level Data Marketing/- ParkBench Software Trainer Director of Technology and Media Services Shrewsbury Public Schools (16 yrs) PowerSchool Administrator (6 yrs) Bob Cornacchioli

Traditional or Standards Grades? – Teachers have graded – Teachers will be grading – Start Date – Hybrid Anyone? Common Core ?

What is this Standard Based Movement Do you know? Do your teachers know? Do your parents know? Does your district have Parent FAQ? What kinds of PD has your district conducted? How is mastery defined in your district? What is the expectations for At-Risk population Have you discussed Special Education students

CURRICULUM/ADMIN & TECHNICAL Collaborate and learn the constraints DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND

Illinois Standards Task Force - 5 Steps to Success Kathy Dinger, Former Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Libertyville D70, Libertyville, Illinois

Change requires continual checking of your stakeholders temperature! ParentsTeachersTech Team

Read anything by Ken O’Connor aka The Grade Doctor Far more important than the keystroke of a grade is how the district has trained teachers in the proper techniques in determining that grade. What Ken and others are saying about student achievement is mission critical. PowerTeacher has been designed with these principles.

Learning Conversations: The Culture of Grading Same Curriculum Across all classrooms HOPEZERO’s MISSING WORK EXTRA CREDIT TENDENCY MAKE UP WORK Evidence Same Grading Practices Across all classrooms??

With teachers at your Grade Level With teachers at your School With teachers in the District What does it mean for next placement? How are Special Needs students graded? What do students need to know and be able to demonstrate? Your Conversion Scale has been set… now what does a 4 or a C really mean?

Conversion Scales

Homebound Assessment Avoid Confusion- Adjust Rubrics and assessments Sending Home Letter Grades and Percentages will confuse Parents and Students How does an A-, B+, 93, 82, B- EQUAL a 3?

S T A N D A R D S C H E D L E C O U R S E S SC LESSC LES IDENTIFIERIDENTIFIER G R A E B O O K

STANDARDS NAMING SCHEMA 65*-75 Character Limit

# of Reporting Periods dictates the # of characters

Cualquier persona española? Do any of you need a Spanish report cards? Identifier schema is VIP ELA.K.1 could be ELA.KSP.1 Spanish translation tends to be longer Spanish standards need not be associate to any classes (Teachers don’t need to see them in the GB) Coding on the report cards ^(*std.info.name;ELA.6SP.37) ^(*std.stored.transavg;ELA.6.37;T1) ^(*std.stored.transavg;ELA.6.37;T2) ^(*std.stored.transavg;ELA.6.37;T3)

Curriculum vs. Technical Labor Cost Grade K Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3

Consider a user friendly schema for standard identifiers Removing a,b,c will save time- import template and report cards

STANDARDS Create the standards collaboratively- Excel Teacher Involvement = Ownership Provide ample time for unwarping standards Less is more- 65*-75 character limit Number of Standards – Report Card vs. Curriculum Guide – Core Content vs. Specials – Essential Skills, Effort or Habits of Mind Assessment Per Term Changes and Real Estate – Text vs. # Conversion Scales- Drop Downs for Teachers

STANDARDS TIMELINE (considerations) District initiative or single school pilot??? – Pilots can pose some issues – Invite participation from non pilot schools 6+ Months in advance- identify standards Guidance during Grade Level Selection- VIP Decide your scale ( avoid traditional grading- A ) Do all teachers have rosters in PS? Create - Import File of Grade Level Standards Set Expectations for Comment Writing Discuss Assignments (GradeScales) vs Standards Assessment (ConversionScales) Communicate with all stakeholders

May 3,2013 – Standards Finalized-uploaded to Google Docs May 8,2013 – Onsite development of preK-5 SBRC May 30, 2013 Onsite training of Vanguard Teachers Sept 14, 2013 – Modifications to SBRC and WIDA

Should Common Core Standards Impact Scheduling? How many courses are you planning to use for English Language Arts? Reading – Writing – Speaking & Listening - Language

Standards associated to Courses Check Enrollment: Schools - Sections Do you see courses in the left navigational areas? Check ELA – do you have separate classes for READING, WRITING, SPEAKING & LISTIENING?

Homeroom has enrollment and this school has 5 sections 1 st Grade

If the course exists but there isn’t any enrollment - you have to address scheduling before teachers can grade students! All standards associated to HR is not recommended Mass enroll students into each core content area & specials using dependent sections

CREATING AN EXCEL IMPORT FILE

NAME – CCOUNT Students can… (tense) & saves 2 spaces – no periods

Character Count for Standards

Identifiers, List Parent, Level and Sort Order

List Parent, Level and Sort Order List Parent – places “child” standards under their parents Level – organizes standards using an outline method. Level 1 = Grade Level 2 = Content Level 3 = Sub Headers/Standards Level 4 = Standards Sort Order – the sequence which the standards appear in the Gradebook

List Parent and Auto-Calculate

COURSES & TYPE,MA3,SCI3,ELA4,ELA5

The Magic of the Last Three Columns FALSE – FALSE – BLANK TRUE – FALSE – BLANK TRUE – FALSE – NUMBER FALSE – TRUE - BLANK Can’t see – Can’t comment on it - Can’t grade it Can see – Can’t comment on it - Can’t grade it Can see – Can’t comment on it – Can grade it Can see – Can comment on it – Can’t grade it

Conversion Scales Habits of Mind/Effort Proficiency Levels Grades 1-8 / MCAS Proficiency Levels For K

Conversion Scale #? Gen Table (6) Search for “scale”

Or install Jason Springel’s customization

STANDARDS by TERM

Final Grade Entry For Teachers In Gradebook, If all standards were tied to HR, they would run from here to the Atlantic Ocean Associating standards to specific courses can reduce or eliminate scroll RIGHT.. Just switch classes and reveal content specific standards

Access: PowerTeacher Gradebook Will the Art, PE, Music, Media, Computer, Band, Chorus… teacher be grading students? If YES – they must have rosters in PS

BEST PRACTICES: CULLING STANDARDS 1.Less is More! In the Gradebook & on the Report Card 2.Grade Level teachers review all available standards (CC,SS,&LS) and CHERRY PICK 3.Consider CC Sub-Category headers 4.Discuss/Decide which will be on the report card and which will only be in the gradebook 5.Wordsmith any standard over 65/70/75 characters 6.Choose standards that lend themselves to being easily associated to an assignment- not all do !

Download Web Gradebook and Standards PPT

Grade Value of Conversions Scales When teachers assess a standard more than once associated to multiple assignments, PTG averages these scores. Grade Value can’t be ZERO as seen earlier in this presentation. Round Up Scale – Cut off Scale = 50% of the Grade Level Delta

Grade Value of Conversions Scales Depending upon which standard based educator your curriculum folks have read, the concept of AVERAGE isn’t part of the standards movement. YET the Gradebook has to apply some sort equation in order to convert scores to these Grade Labels 4,3,2,1. Feedback from districts to Pearson has resulted in a new version (2.6) of PowerTeacher with the installation of PS 7.5. Averaging of standards scores assigned to multiple assignments is now becoming clearer. PowerTeacher Gradebook is still evolving!!!!

Calculations Using PT Admin- your district will have to set policy on grading standards. The Gradebook will have to be set per school to look: Default setting for final grades Allow teacher modifications OR NOT Calculations for Most Recent Scores

Training Teachers to Grade Final Grade Entry** (RW will not work) Specialists vs. HR teachers 5 mins. with a PPT presentation Google PowerTeacher Gradebook- lots of resources Web Gradebook – A bit more time ( JING Movies/Atomic Learning/Mastery in Minutes/Google?) Comments- Comments- Comments - Narrative – Comment Bank – Content vs. Summative?

Comment Length can be set at the District-List Standards-for all your comment standards IF YOU LEAVE IT BLANK = 4000

Additional Thoughts on Comments When could use a comment length of 2 or 3 max? 1 2B C 5D 6 7 8A 8B 8C 9A 9B 9C 11 How do you set the correct length? When you create an entry box on your report card use the same sized box for all grades all subjects. Content specific comments are NORMALLY shorter than a summative narrative Create a standard called Teacher Comment associate to HR or Subject Comment to Subject

“Straight quotes” with “Smart quotes” If teachers use Word for pasting into the gradebook, special characters (like “quotation marks”, apostrophes’ and - dashes) can end up printing incorrectly on the final report card. Word – Tools- Auto Correct- AutoFormat as you Type and REMOVE the √ from Straight quotes with smart Quotes This only works if you change this setting BEFORE you typed them in- SORRY!

Have you thought about Report Cards? Parent Portal – access to grades – list form NOT DYNAMIC – all must be custom made Object Reports vs. Report Works (Dynamic- CC) Summative Multi-page requires duplex printers

PowerSource Community

New Option Available Now? Standards Grades Search Tool Customizations

Within seconds, all the students who were under performing in that grade and the selected term appear on the scree and can be exported!

Administrators want %... now they can!

Each standard in given grade level and term display as a row. Click on the row and you get…. ?

Q & A Bob Cornacchioli DERO Technical Services